Baselworld is only a few weeks away. Getting the latest news is easy, Click Here for info on how to join the Watchuseek.com newsletter list. Follow our team for updates featuring event coverage, new product unveilings, watch industry news & more!

So your telling me if my data that I had from WMC is there (that I got from MCM) it will use it...
If that is the case shouldn't it be very fast in doing so?
Everything thing is there.... like I said I was running WMC in full force.
It is taking time like it is scraping from the net.....

Even if it is reading your pre-existing data it still takes a surprising amount of time to read that data and add it to your library.

The first time I ran the update library with my Revo with over 700 movies with metadata and artwork already scraped by media companion took hours.
I ended up letting it run overnight so not sure exactly how long it went.

If you are questioning if XBMC is really scraping from your data folder try a little experiment.
Replace one of your movie thumbnails in the data folder with some off the wall thumbnail and see if that shows up on the xbmc box or not.

I don't think it will be, it still has to go through the routine of reading the nfo files from your folders, not necessarily carrying out a scraping routine from the internet.

Well, I just tried this experiment real quick.
I simply disconnected my internet and tried to get to update the content (which I already have all the meta data for) and it wouldn't do ****.....Kept telling me it needed to be online.
If it is using my data is shouldn't need to be connected....

Well, I just tried this experiment real quick.
I simply disconnected my internet and tried to get to update the content (which I already have all the meta data for) and it wouldn't do ****.....Kept telling me it needed to be online.
If it is using my data is shouldn't need to be connected....

I don't think that is the case. As far as I know xbmc still needs to make the internet connection, there is no way to make it use purely offline data. However where it detects nfo, tbn and fan-art it will use them, rather than scrape on-line data.

I don't think it will be, it still has to go through the routine of reading the nfo files from your folders, not necessarily carrying out a scraping routine from the internet.

Well if I remove the link to my Movies folder and then recreate the link and let it go xbmc re-downloads all the info again. You can see that happening on the screen. Same thing for the TV Shows. Would it do this even though the meta data created by MCM is there already?

Well if I remove the link to my Movies folder and then recreate the link and let it go xbmc re-downloads all the info again. You can see that happening on the screen. Same thing for the TV Shows. Would it do this even though the meta data created by MCM is there already?

Yes I get the same when using xbmc generated nfo's etc, when backing up to seperate files (basically doing the same job as MCM - placing nfo,tbn and fanart files in the movie/tv folder, but generated from the xbmc scraped database.) All that is doing is proving that it is working, not where the information is coming from.

Ok... Since it was doing that download again I assumed it was superseding the MCM data. It probably is working correctly and I was just misinterpreting what XBMC was doing which is good to know.

Ok, Another question. I notice that my folder.jpg files are not all working for TV shows. Example... I have a folder called "Babylon 5". In that folder I have a folder.jpg and that's what I see for that directory. Now under the main directory I have a directory for each season with a folder.jpg file for each season in the corresponding folder, but those don't change. All the folder pictures are the same as the main directory. I've manually looked at them all to verify they are correct and different in each folder. I tried to manually set them with the context menu and it will change but it makes every season folder that same picture. Any ideas?

So if I delete that file will it just re-fetch the pictures from the directories?

Be careful before you do that - you state that your file structure is the same as mine, but it can't be if you have folder.jpg's within each season folder - I don't. I have a folder.jpg in the show folder and seperate tbn files for each season - again in the show folder level.

I see you may be having difficulties getting MCM to work properly - your post on MCM remains unsolved unless I'm mistaken. I think the placement and type of file might be your problem.

Be careful before you do that - you state that your file structure is the same as mine, but it can't be if you have folder.jpg's within each season folder - I don't. I have a folder.jpg in the show folder and seperate tbn files for each season - again in the show folder level.

I see you may be having difficulties getting MCM to work properly - your post on MCM remains unsolved unless I'm mistaken. I think the placement and type of file might be your problem.

Yes, I have metadata, folder.jpg, etc. in side each season folder. I'll just rename the file and see what it does. Worst comes to worst I can rename it back.

Ok, someone suggested this yesterday.
I made a temp folder with a single season of a tv show.
swapped artwork and I also made some changes in the xml file to the episode synopsis.

Put this folder in XBMC and let it go to work.
For some reason it used the coverart that you click on in the main screen from the bogus show but as for everthing else.... it was the correct info with the correct pictures... which means it scraped even though I had all the metadata and artwork that it needed.....

Aeon MQ2 is slower than other skins I've tried such as Night, Cirrus and Shade. I'm using the latest repository builds for each skin. Aeon does have some very nice eye candy but the speed is definitely not there, and its due to the 1 million options in the xml files which must be parsed each time a page loads. I really wish Aeon would come in a 'lite' flavor with only the most popular views. And I'm running this on decent hardware - e5200, 2GB RAM, 7200rpm disk.

Does anyone here have documentaries? I have a ton from National Geographic, BBC etc and would like to know how you organize them in XBMC (e.g. using smartlists) and how you get metadata.

Ok, someone suggested this yesterday.
I made a temp folder with a single season of a tv show.
swapped artwork and I also made some changes in the xml file to the episode synopsis.

Put this folder in XBMC and let it go to work.
For some reason it used the coverart that you click on in the main screen from the bogus show but as for everthing else.... it was the correct info with the correct pictures... which means it scraped even though I had all the metadata and artwork that it needed.....

I think I am making the switch from WMC to XBMC.
Got it installed and I like it a lot.

I already have all my meta data for everything from WMC that I got with MCM.

However, when I add to the library XBMC seems to want to scrape for the info.

I have MCM running with this as per the guide
XBMC
-> Create movie.nfo.nfo metadata for XBMC

I thought this would some just import all the data to XBMC so it would not have to do anything.

I don't want XBMC downloading anything it does not have to.

Also... the one part of the guide I disagree with in the MCM section
Renaming tab
-> Select Rename folder during fetch & Rename files too

Movies Tab
-> Deselect "Ask for IMDB ID on unknown results"

I spend the time meticulously naming and storing my files. I don't want any other programs altering it. ...I really don't even need this program running in the background at all times. If I get a new movie I put it in the directory and simply run MCM and get the metadata. I could see if new files were being added all day long but who realistically does that? Also don't understand the not being asked for IMDB info if it does not know it?

Anyway....back to my question.
How do I stop XBMC from what will surely be hours of time.... to just use the metadata and artwork I already have that I got previously with MCM?

If you have properly named .nfo files, XBMC will not scrape. If you update later, it will ask. . . .

If you have properly named .nfo files, XBMC will not scrape. If you update later, it will ask. . . .

My metadata was all retrieved using Media Center Master and worked perfect with WMC.
There are no '.nfo' files in my folders but '.xml' files instead.... is this the problem?
And if you have .nfo files then did you use to get your metadata?

Basically in each movie folder I have the movie file of course, a 'folder.jpg, various 'backdrop.jpg', and a xml file named 'mymovies'.

For each tv show... in the root folder of each show

ex. T:\ vshows\\Simpsons, The\\Season 1\\0101 - episode
In the simpsons folder I have the jpg's... backdrops, banner, fanart, folder and an xml file named 'series'

In each 'season' folder I have a folder and backdrop jpg plus all the episode files
Also in each season folder there is a 'metadata' folder which includes a jpg for each episode and an xml file for each episode named the same as the episode.

My metadata was all retrieved using Media Center Master and worked perfect with WMC.
There are no '.nfo' files in my folders but '.xml' files instead.... is this the problem?
And if you have .nfo files then did you use to get your metadata?

Basically in each movie folder I have the movie file of course, a 'folder.jpg, various 'backdrop.jpg', and a xml file named 'mymovies'.

For each tv show... in the root folder of each show

ex. T:\ vshows\\Simpsons, The\\Season 1\\0101 - episode
In the simpsons folder I have the jpg's... backdrops, banner, fanart, folder and an xml file named 'series'

In each 'season' folder I have a folder and backdrop jpg plus all the episode files
Also in each season folder there is a 'metadata' folder which includes a jpg for each episode and an xml file for each episode named the same as the episode.

I think that is where your problems may lie. Natively xbmc compiles nfo's when backing up its metadata to the Movie/TV Folder, therefore I would have thought that by extension it will be looking for an nfo file generated by MCM.

I had a similar problem transferring from MediaBrowser to xbmc and at that point ditched 3rd party scrapers in favour of the internal programme scrapers. I eventually gave up - deleted all files generated for MB and rescraped - not ideal but hey it worked. Try it with 2 or three files see what happens.

I understand that MCM has recently introduced support for xbmc scraping, which would leave me to believe that it can be achieved in a format suitable to xbmc.

Ok, someone suggested this yesterday.
I made a temp folder with a single season of a tv show.
swapped artwork and I also made some changes in the xml file to the episode synopsis.

Put this folder in XBMC and let it go to work.
For some reason it used the coverart that you click on in the main screen from the bogus show but as for everthing else.... it was the correct info with the correct pictures... which means it scraped even though I had all the metadata and artwork that it needed.....

sooooooooooo..... now what?

The metadata amd thumbnails are stored separately: in the database file and Thumbnails directory, respectively. Even deleting the database will not clear the thumbs.

My metadata was all retrieved using Media Center Master and worked perfect with WMC.
There are no '.nfo' files in my folders but '.xml' files instead.... is this the problem?
And if you have .nfo files then did you use to get your metadata?

Basically in each movie folder I have the movie file of course, a 'folder.jpg, various 'backdrop.jpg', and a xml file named 'mymovies'.

Do you mean moviename.dvdid.xml files? I believe that these are unique to WMC and, as far as I know, they contain urls--pointers to metadata on allmovie.com--not the actual metadata. mymovies.xml will be meaningless to XBMC.

XBMC stores its metadata in moviename.nfo files (which are just .xml files). So without them, as far as XBMC knows, you have no metadata. No wonder it's scraping! Recent versions of MCM should be able to generate .nfo files for XBMC using the same inputs as it uses for WMC.

You should skim some of the basic documentation available at xbmc.org.